BOSSES at Supercover Quilty Group Limited are reassuring customers that they will continue to supply their products to major UK retailers despite the manufacturing site in Darwen closing in September.

The closure of the factory in Darwen will result in 55 redundancies after a major client took their custom to the Far East and left the local site struggling for work.

But Gillian Toogood, sales manager at Supercover in Bolton, stressed that the company was not in trouble and would continue to supply the products as usual.

She said: "People may be thinking that the company has gone bust because of this but it is only the manufacturing side of the Darwen site and the Bolton site that have been affected.

"There is still a little manufacturing in the form of welding in Bolton and the warehousing is still there but we are now a distributor in nursery products, including rain covers, bedding and push chair accessories.

"The group itself is growing but unfortunately it is the UK manufacturing industry that is killing that side of the business and we decided we had better move it overseas before someone else did."